First Lady, Michelle Obama, cites IHME research in White House event

July 11, 2013

On July 10, 2013, First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama cited IHME research in a "Let's Move!" event at the White House. The discussion focused on the importance of community action toward eating healthier and increasing physical activity. After her remarks, IHME Director Christopher Murray presented results on US life expectancy, obesity, and physical activity from three papers published in two medical journals.

IHME's research is the first comprehensive analysis of disease burden in the United States in over 15 years will be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). “The State of US Health, 1990-2010: the Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors,” details health challenges facing the United States and how the US fares in comparison to its economic peers.

Two additional papers, to be published in the open-access journal Population Health Metrics (PHM) on the same day, focus on US county-level results for life expectancy, as well as obesity and physical activity. Together, this work provides nationally and locally relevant data on health trends in the United States, highlighting areas in which progress has been made and where more policy attention is needed.

New data visualizations based on these results will be available online, allowing further exploration of the data and geographic comparisons.